


Peace Offering

by breeisonfire



Series: TAG prompt fics [16]
Category: Thunderbirds
Genre: Gen, john's a nerd
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-02
Updated: 2017-10-02
Packaged: 2019-01-08 01:37:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,220
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12244587
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/breeisonfire/pseuds/breeisonfire
Summary: akireyta said: "prompt: Penny making it up to John after tricking him into a suit and in front of those photographers :)"





	Peace Offering

**Author's Note:**

> There was this little promo during an interview Thomas Brodie-Sangster and David Graham did that showed John in FAB1 with Penny in a white suit. Spoilers, I guess? Though none of this will be canon, at all, holy moly.
> 
> Also, warning for people being slightly creepy.

“I hate you.”

It’s said in a petulant tone, muffled slightly by the jacket he’d taken off and then dramatically thrown over his face. He’s sprawled out on a couch, grateful for the lack of yelling and more than a little annoyed at the turn the night has taken.

“Now, really, John, this is an overreaction.”

She’s probably right. He doesn’t really care.

“Are you sulking?”

She sounds amused. John reaches up and pinches the bridge of his nose. “You know I hate photographers.”

“Yes.”

“You lied to me.”

“I didn’t lie. I only understated the size, just a little bit.”

John pulls the jacket down far enough to peek one eye out at her, eyebrows raised at her. He’s not in the mood for these games and she should really know that by now.

Penny sighs. “Oh, all right. I needed someone to come with me and I knew you’d say no if I mentioned that there could be paparazzi.”

“For good reason,” John mutters.

“Really, you should be used to them by now.”

“I spend over three-quarters of the year in space and the rest of the time I’m usually on a remote island. I don’t deal with them a lot,” he pulls the jacket back over his face. The flashes from cameras always gives him a headache, and this time’s no exception. He can feel the ache beginning, directly behind his eyes. “Why didn’t you bring one of the others, then? Why didn’t you bring Gordon?”

“I was being honest about that part. I wanted your company. You do realize it’s been months since we spoke face-to-face?”

He can feel her sitting down on the end of the couch he’s lying on. “It’s been busy. We could have easily done this on Tracy Island, or at your mansion. Or if it’s an appearance you’re after, I could have done that somewhere like MIT, or NASA, when I was _aware_ it was coming, instead of looking like an idiot.”

“You didn’t look like an idiot,” Penny says. “You did perfectly well, and now they’ll have a few months worth of pictures for them to deal with, instead of...other things.”

John groans. It happens, every now and again. Someone tries to stir up trouble and dig out ‘dirt’ just to make things interesting. There’s very rarely any truth to it, and if there it is, it’s been blown out of proportion or taken out of context, but when it’s been too quiet, the tabloids and blogs like to try and trash someone’s reputation. He should have known. “Who was it this time?”

It’s usually Gordon, because he likes attention and he doesn’t mind taking the heat off of the others. It was Kayo once, not long after the Hood’s arrest, but that didn’t end well for anyone involved. Anything about Scott usually gets shot down by TI’s lawyers fairly quickly, and Virgil’s almost never involved in anything, though there have been some pretty bizarre stories made up about him that still make their rounds. John gets it occasionally, mostly because he’s never in the public eye, but if he’s here, it wasn’t him.

There’s a definite note of disgust in Penny’s tone as she says, “It was Alan.”

John pulls his jacket off of his face entirely at that. It’s _never_ been Alan before. He’s still a minor, and a surprisingly well-behaved one at that. Gordon’s been causing messes since he was born; John’s been in arguments with colleagues since he learned about the scientific method; Virgil started a public outcry about PETA when he was fifteen; even Scott got into trouble when he was younger, but Scott and Grandma are strict about what gets out about Alan, because he’s still just a kid.

“I’m almost afraid to ask,” he says slowly.

The media thinks they have some sort of weird claim over Alan, since he was barely two when their dad started getting real media interest. They liked to talk about watching Alan ‘grow up in the eyes of the public,’ despite the fact that Alan’s childhood has been pretty sheltered from them. Any time these kinds of articles pop up, Scott gets this look like he wants to burn the entire internet, and Grandma has some very big and colorful words about these opinions.

If anything’s popped up, it’s definitely made up. After their dad vanished, a few reporters tried stalking Alan at his school, so Scott and Grandma pulled him and since then, he’s always been in the company of one of the others any time he’s been in public. John would have found it suffocating, but if Alan does, he doesn’t really show it.

Then again, Alan flies a rocketship and has been around the _sun_ , so the kid’s view of a normal childhood is probably a little skewed.

Penny pulls a face. “There were pictures, obviously manipulated, of Alan. I believe the implication was that he’s close to coming of age and several people are...looking forward to it. It was in horribly poor taste.”

John’s stomach twists. “Jesus.”

“They’ve been dealt with,” Penny assures him, and he absolutely believes her. Penny’s as protective of Alan as the rest of them. “Ruthlessly and thoroughly, with Kayo’s assistance. I let Parker handle the imbecile that created them, and then we passed that information onto the GDF. Apparently they found them wetting themselves and fighting to be the first one in the police van.”

John feels his lips twitch at the imagery. “I take it Parker’s involvement was alleged?”

Penny laughs. “Oh, no, he’s very proud of this. As he should be.”

John agrees. “Does Scott know?”

“No, although Grandma Tracy does, as does your family’s lawyer. The consensus was if Scott were to find out, he’d do something rather dramatic, and we wanted to cut this off before it spread any further.”

John nods. He trusts them. “Thank you for telling me.”

“I’ll admit I have an ulterior motive for that,” Penny says, leaning forward. “I’d like to enlist EOS to help me keep an eye out for any more of this kind of thing.”

John grins. _That’s_ the best thing he’s heard all day. “F-A-B.”

There’s a knock at the door, and Penny calls, “Come in.”

Parker sticks his head in and says, “H’xcuse me, m’lady, but he’s here.”

“Oh! Oh, thank you, Parker, I almost forgot!” Penny says, and there’s real delight in her eyes as she turns to John. “I have a peace offering for dragging you out here.”

John knows better than to refuse; she’ll just talk him into it, even if he’s not mad anymore. “What is it?”

Penny smiles. “Who is your biggest hero?”

John narrows his eyes. There’s a few people on that list, though only two of them are still alive, and one of them is most definitely more likely than the other. “Penny -.”

“Remember how you lamented over never having the chance to talk to him outside of class because you couldn’t work it into your schedule?”

“Penny, you - _you invited Mark Watney to dinner_?”

“Surprise! He’s very interested in hearing about Thunderbird Five.”

“How did you - I’ve been trying for _years_ , how did you even manage this?”

“I think you’ll find I’m very good at getting what I want. Let’s go eat, shall we?”

**Author's Note:**

> John being a fan of Mark Watney's is The Greatest and I think akireyta's [fic about it](http://archiveofourown.org/works/6989779) is my favorite.


End file.
